Museo Giardino Santa Rosalia

The project offers evocative, innovative spaces within a work of contemporary architecture that has the ability to both welcome and astonish visitors and is designed to integrate with the significant heritage of Palermo’s historic centre.

The new building retains a high-level connection to Palazzo Branciforte, via a pedestrian walkway of very simple design that enables the visitor route through the Fondazione Sicilia museum to be extended by making use of the pleasant rooftop garden.

Whilst the proposed internal spatial configurations harmonise with the architectural exuberance of the museum complex, the approach to urban integration adopts a more subdued approach and has been reinterpreted using a purified aesthetic based on simple geometries and materials that better integrate with the surroundings. The frontages of the new building are conceived as minimal, transparent surfaces that echo the alignments of the original facades within Palermo’s historic urban ar[...]chitecture, ensuring that the new block is harmoniously integrated into the established fabric of the historic centre.

The entrance to the new building, situated on the north-west side in proximity to Palazzo Branciforte, intentionally steps back from the existing streets, carving out a small square. This deliberate design decision aims to reclaim public spaces and foster a more direct relationship between the museum and the social life of the city.

The project offers evocative, innovative spaces within a work of contemporary architecture that has the ability to both welcome and astonish visitors and is designed to integrate with the significant heritage of Palermo’s historic centre.

The new building retains a high-level connection to Palazzo Branciforte, via a pedestrian walkway of very simple design that enables the visitor route through the Fondazione Sicilia museum to be extended by making use of the pleasant rooftop garden.

Whilst the proposed internal spatial configurations harmonise with the architectural exuberance of the museum complex, the approach to urban integration adopts a more subdued approach and has been reinterpreted using a purified aesthetic based on simple geometries and materials that better integrate with the surroundings. The frontages of the new building are conceived as minimal, transparent surfaces that echo the alignments of the original facades within Palermo’s historic urban ar[...]chitecture, ensuring that the new block is harmoniously integrated into the established fabric of the historic centre.

The entrance to the new building, situated on the north-west side in proximity to Palazzo Branciforte, intentionally steps back from the existing streets, carving out a small square. This deliberate design decision aims to reclaim public spaces and foster a more direct relationship between the museum and the social life of the city.

The building’s functional concept is based on the idea of opening up the space of the above-ground floors to the city, facilitating a flexible museum layout adaptable to diverse exhibition needs. This is realised by creating a fragmented structure of slim metal columns, seamlessly blending with the glazed perimeter façade. Monolithic concrete elements are strategically placed at the centre, where they are required for structural stability.
The building extends over two above-ground floors, including the panoramic terrace, and one basement floor. The technical and service rooms are situated along the rear opposite the entrance, enabling the space of each floor to be dedicated solely to exhibitions, maximising display capacity.

Internally, the space unfolds over the two upper levels, converging centrally into a double-height area that remains entirely open, fostering a sense of generous spatial continuity. At its centre an elliptical opening provides a view down to the basement floor – where the museum space continues – accessible via a spiral staircase that descends from the large central terrace.

The reception area is situated to the left, off-centre whilst symmetrically opposite, to the south, is a space where the plant rooms and vertical service runs are discreetly hidden from sight.

The First Floor develops centrally as an external exhibition pathway connecting to Palazzo Branciforte, shaded by a diverse array of trees and shrubs and creating a garden that includes a small amphitheatre. Within the roof space of the building, a refreshment area for visitors doubles as a lounge area with a panoramic terrace where public events can be held.

The elevated walkway linking to Palazzo Branciforte establishes direct communication between the internal courtyard of the palace and the new garden. It is designed as a a minimalist steel and timber structure that elegantly slots into an opening positioned higher than the cornice level of the palace, where it has been meticulously inserted into the façade whilst preserving all the historic mouldings.

Before embarking on the design of the garden we conducted a study of “Palermo green city” that brought back to life the historic imagery of a thriving Palermo adorned with lush gardens and springs that have defined its urban landscape since the Arab and Norman eras. From the ‘sollazzi’ (the residences of delight, encircled by magnificent parks, that were the exclusive domains of the Norman emperors) to the 18th and 19th century ‘green salons’, the city and its surrounding hinterland, known as the Conca d’Oro have flourished over the centuries with gardens, public parks, vegetable gardens and citrus groves. Many of these green spaces have been preserved, at least partially, until the present day.

These traces of the past served as guiding inspirations for the design of the rooftop garden of the new museum building. Despite the densely built surroundings of Palazzo Branciforte today, it is precisely this context that positions the new project to potentially serve as the catalyst for an ecological corridor connecting to other green areas in the city.

The planting in the roof garden will include species that are fragrant and colourful in all four seasons: a small urban oasis inspired by the Arab gardens of Sicily that will welcome visitors into the shade of plants and fruit trees that belong to the historic identity of the city and its territory.

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